Because of enrollment increases, many institutions have advocated the replacement of free-response exams with forced-choice exams as a time-saving strategy. The study in this article evaluated the replacement of free-response practical-examination questions with multiple-choice questions in the laboratory portion of an introductory college-level biology course.
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In this article the authors describe the Assessment of Critical Thinking Ability survey and its preliminary application to assess the critical thinking skills of undergraduate students, graduate students, and postdoctoral fellows.
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Misconceptions that students bring with them to the introductory science classroom are especially prevalent in astronomy. One way to identify and possibly dispel some of these misconceptions is through using a misconceptions survey. This article reports on the development, implementation, and the results of the using an Astronomical Misconceptions Survey.
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This article describes an approach to teaching about environmental issues that helps instill a sense of agency in the young learner. Students identify five lifestyle behaviors that contribute to environmental degradation and come up with an alternative behavior to reduce their personal environmental impact.
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The Brooklyn Opportunities in Science and Careers (BOSC) program aims to increase student participation in physics, environmental studies, geology, and teaching science using a career-focused strategy to recruit students. Students work in collaborative groups to investigate potential careers, gaining skills important in almost all careers, such as teamwork and preparing and delivering presentations.
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The Journal of College Teaching’s editor shares thoughts regarding the current issue.
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This activity helps instructors to demonstrate a method of converting seven-bit binary numbers to decimal numbers and vice versa.
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This column provides original articles on innovations in case study teaching, assessment of the method, as well as case studies with teaching notes. In this month’s issue the goal of the case study is for students to expand their understanding of membrane permeability and the proton motive force in mitochondria through the study of 2,4—dinitrophenol (DNP) action.
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This article examines the extent to which college-level instructor gender affects the confidence of males and females in their scientific abilities.
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To assess current trends of evolution instruction in high schools of the mid-South, the authors had Arkansas high school biology teachers and students enrolled in a freshman-level nonmajors biology course at a midsize public Arkansas university respond to a survey.
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This column shares reflections or thoughtful opinions on issues of broad interest to the community. In this month’s issue the author encourages teachers to teach both sides of global warming, thus teaching students how to evaluate evidence and recognize spurious arguments.
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The GK–12 program offers graduate students unique teaching opportunities as students are paired with a teacher in a K–12 classroom. This article documents the benefits for teaching fellows in numerous areas, such as communication with various audiences, collaboration with other teaching partners, and confidence in their ability to teach and engage students.
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The University of Puerto Rico Mayaguez hosted a series of academic and applied neuroscience activities as part of a Brain Awareness Week (BAW). The study in this article explores the impact of the BAW events as a vehicle for advancing interest in and understanding of the brain, as well as furthering exposure to the professional neuroscience options for a sample of Hispanic undergrades.
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A comparison was made between students' overall performance, as measured by overall grade, in different teaching and learning protocols. The data gathered indicate that students' conceptual learning is enhanced by the self-guided inquiry eBook and group discussion protocol.
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Mastery learning is an instructional method based on the idea that students learn best if they fully understand one concept before moving to the next and has been shown to be extremely effective in math and science curricula. Competency-based grading is an evaluative tool that allows the faculty member to determine the level of mastery students must achieve for a passing grade. This article provides a guide to facilitate the implementation of this complementary set of instructional and assessment tools.
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Most timeline analogies of geologic and evolutionary time are flawed, causing an understanding of relative time with little comprehension of absolute time. Using Google Earth, one can construct an ideal timeline analogy relative to a point in the classroom with locally adaptable markers for important events in geologic time.
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